Queen's Day is one of the largest celebrations for the Dutch. It's a day for people to come together and celebrate the Queen's birthday. With the thousands of visitors and locals this event attracts, Queen's Day has a huge impact on Holland's tourism industry.
For those not familiar with the celebration, the first Queen's Day was celebrated in honor of Queen Wilhelmina on 31 August 1885. The date then changed to 30 April in 1949 when Queen Juliana, Queen Wilhelmina's daugther, began her reign. Now, the date remains 30 April, even though Queen Beatrix's birthday is in January. The current Queen chose to keep the same date in honor of her mother, Queen Juliana. [1]
UPDATE: since Willem-Alexander ascended the throne on 30 April 2013, the celebration has changed its name to King's Day and moved to 27 April.
Approximately 800,000 people come to Amsterdam to participate in the festivities. Parties and events take place in every corner of the city – the streets, parks and even canals. From fuzzy hats to beaded necklaces and orange clothing, everyone (and everything) is orange. Orange is the national color of The Netherlands. Live music, DJs, parties, and flea markets are also abundant. In 2007, ING Bank figured the volume of the flea market business to be around 200 million Euros, with about 1.8 million traders earning 111 Euros each, on average. [2] The Mövenpick Hotel Amsterdam City Centre reported Queen's Day was busy, and the hotel was fully booked, as usual. “Dutch guests are one-third of the total number of guests during Queensday,” said Dirje van Laar, Marketing Coordinator. “We had a wide variety of guests from all over the world [this year], but the furthest were from New Zealand, Australia, India, Indonesia, and Japan.”
Precautionary measures were also taken. For instance, in Limburg, where the Queen visited this year, approximately 1300 police officers were on duty with camera survellience. Additionally, alcohol consumption is usually very high, so measures were implemented by the NS to ensure transportation was kept under control. Alcohol was banned on the train and in train stations from 29 April at 19:00 to 1 May at 7:00. The trains were staffed with extra persons, especially in high traffic areas, such as Amsterdam, Utrecht, Eindhoven, and Weert. [3] Approximately 250,000 people came to Amsterdam by train, and the NS reported little difficulties overall. [4] “We always have some tourists that don't know it is Queen's Day in Amsterdam,” said van Laar. “They really liked it and were surprised that there was nothing that went wrong.” Overall, it is estimated that 10,528,200 international visitors will come to The Netherlands this year. Also, the travel and tourism industry this year alone is estimated to contribute $60680 million to The Netherland's GDP (DataMonitors). “For people from abroad, it's nice to see something that is considered typical Dutch – a huge event with lots of music and people on the streets vending stuff,” said van Laar. “It's really special and nice to celebrate for those that come from outside the Netherlands, as well.”
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